Hov’s own protege, Rihanna, recently confirmed that she turned down the Super Bowl last year based on principle. She said that if she would’ve felt like a sell-out if she had taken the opportunity, especially after the amount of public support she shared for Colin Kaepernick. “I couldn’t dare do that,” she said in a recent story with Vogue. “For what? Who gains from that? Not my people,” she concluded.

However, the statements she made came days before Jay-Z announced that he’d be partnering with the NFL, according to The Blast. Sources close to Rihanna clarified that those comments were made without any knowledge of Jay-Z’s dealing with the organization. They said she had “no idea” negotiations were even happening in the first place.

Rihanna is still signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation so it seems very doubtful that she’d make that statement with any reason to shade Hov. However, one’s got to wonder whether she and Jay-Z ever spoke about it behind closed doors.